EXCLUSIVE – HAL ROGERS AND ED WHITFIELD TO ENDORSE ROMNEY: The two Kentucky congressmen, both establishment heavyweights, are signing with the frontrunner today. Rogers chairs the House Appropriations Committee, and Whitfield chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee’s powerful Energy and Power subcommittee. Rogers says he’s impressed by the comprehensiveness of Romney’s economic plan, and the depth of his private sector experience. Whitfield plans to praise two elements of Romney’s Massachusetts record: balancing the budget with no tax increases and leaving the state with a Rainy Day Fund. “They share my goals of lessening the regulatory burden on small business and getting our exploding deficits under control. They also share my goal of making our country energy independent,” Romney says in a statement that will go out later.

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POPPING THIS MORNING – HOUSE MAJORITY PAC ADS TARGET 4 REPUBLICANS: The House Majority PAC will launch a six-figure ad campaign today against four House Republicans, hitting them for caring more about Wall Street than Main Street. The ads, which start today and run for a week on broadcast and cable, target Dan Lungren (CA-3), Charlie Bass (NH-2), Bill Johnson (OH-06) and Sean Duffy (WI-7). Here’s the Duffy hit: http://bit.ly/rhn9pz.

*** As Obama starts his 1,001st day in office, a poll shows Matheson within striking distance of Hatch and the Republican at the top of the polls says he’s not familiar with neo-conservatism, here’s POLITICO’s Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD: Herman Cain is fighting to be more than the flavor of last week. Tuesday’s debate in Nevada will be a do-or-die moment for him. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner continues to hold the primary calendar hostage, and the president hits the road this morning on a three-day bus tour to North Carolina and Virginia. With all that in mind, we have these questions for the week ahead:

(1) Will Jon Huntsman earn New Hampshire good will for skipping Tuesday’s debate or will it be viewed as pandering?

(2) Who will be the most prominent New Hampshire figure to go on the record against Gardner's primary date zealotry?

(3) Will Herman Cain continue to shroud his campaign advisers in mystery?

(4) Will Rick Perry play it safe again in the debate and try to run out the clock? (Dan Balz’s take: http://wapo.st/o1rImd)

DRIVING THE DAY – OBAMA’S BUS TOUR KICKS OFF IN NORTH CAROLINA: President Obama flies into Asheville Regional Airport and speaks there at 10:50 a.m. Then he gives a speech at a high school in the small town of Millers Creek at 5 p.m. Here are three objectives for Obama as he heads South: “First he needs to make sure black voters, who are the core here, are as motivated as they were last time. Second, he needs to reach out to working-class whites, who he’s totally lost. Third, he’s got to generate some kind of enthusiasm among liberals…who are his volunteer and donor base,” said Mileah Kromer, assistant director of the Elon University Poll, whose September poll found Obama with a 42/51 approval in North Carolina. The quote comes from this curtain-raiser by Glenn Thrush that looks at the political rationale for each of POTUS’ stops: http://politi.co/nb5qIO.

SNEAK PEEK – CROSSROADS SPENDING $80K TO BRACKET OBAMA DURING BUS TRIP: Warning people that this jobs plan is just stimulus redux, American Crossroads will put $80,000 into North Carolina and Virginia behind that ad featuring Bill Clinton saying this is not the time for tax increases. Markets covered: Newport News, Roanoke and Charlottesville, Greensboro and Greenville-Spartanburg. Spots started last night on network stations and cable news. They will run through today, finish tomorrow in Virginia and warp up Wednesday in the Tar Heel State. The ad: http://bit.ly/mVFN5s

FIRST LOOK – ROMNEY REVIVES MAGICAL MISERY TOUR: The Romney campaign has decided to direct their fire today at President Obama, bringing back the mocking “Magical Misery Tour” that generated local buzz during the last bus swing. Here is Boston’s main talking point: “Since President Obama’s visit to North Carolina last month, the state’s jobless rate has climbed to 10.4% and another 12,000 workers became unemployed.”

NEVADA IGNORED – CANDIDATES NOT TALKING MUCH ABOUT HOUSING CRISIS: Mark Z. Barabak has a story in today’s LA Times about how little attention Nevada has been getting from the candidates despite its place on the calendar, largely because (even with Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsing Perry) everyone still thinks Romney has it pretty much locked up (built-in support from the huge Mormon population is part of it). The candidates have also not given specifics about their plans to deal with foreclosures (Nevada ranks 1st, Iowa is 33rd). For an epic kicker, the reporter goes back to a house Romney visited in April to talk about foreclosures: “The couple that hosted Romney…have moved to Texas and their home is in foreclosure. Leaves gather in cobwebs by the front door and a notice taped to the garage warns potential squatters away.” http://lat.ms/nTiJSw

THE OBAMA JUGGERNAUT – OBAMA REELECT HAS SPENT $87 MILLION: “Since the beginning of the year, Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee, for which the president is helping raise money to finance his party’s grass-roots efforts, have spent close to $87 million in operating costs,” Nicholas Confessore and Griff Palmer write on the front page of today’s New York Times. “That amount is about as much as all the current Republican candidates together have raised so far in this campaign. In recent months, that money has helped open campaign offices in at least 15 states… In just the last three months, according to [FEC] filings, the Obama campaign has spent more on payroll, more than $4 million, than several of the Republican candidates have raised. The president is already paying staff employees in at least 38 states, including Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Mexico and North Carolina. His Chicago campaign headquarters hums with more than 200 paid aides.” http://nyti.ms/pSaBIW

In case you weren’t paying attention late Friday night, the Wall Street Journal compiled all the presidential candidate’s top-line fundraising numbers in one blog item: http://on.wsj.com/oOYELu

CAIN ON “MEET THE PRESS”—

• 9-9-9: “Some people will pay more, but most people will pay less.”

• NEOCONSERVATISM: Cain has missed the dominant strain of conservative foreign policy thinking for the last decade. Asked by David Gregory if he considers himself one, Cain said: “I'm not sure what you mean by ‘neoconservative.’ … I'm not familiar with the neoconservative movement.” [Full interview: http://on.msnbc.com/phIfMF ]

• GAY MARRIAGE – SANTORUM ATTACKS CAIN FOR NOT PUSHING A GAY MARRIAGE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: Rick Santorum, eager to pick a fight, quickly seized on Cain telling Gregory that he would not push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage because the matter should be left to states. Watch for this to come up in the debate.

• ELECTRIC FENCE PROPOSAL – CAIN CALLS IT A “JOKE,” BUT NYT CASTS DOUBT: “At two campaign rallies in Tennessee on Saturday night, [Cain] said that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally,” the New York Times reports. “But by Sunday morning, in a dramatic change of tone, Mr. Cain…said he was only kidding. [‘That’s not a serious plan,’ he said.] … Mr. Cain’s attempt to pass off incendiary comments as nothing but a joke may take more effort, however. In making the initial remarks about an electrified fence killing illegal immigrants, Mr. Cain was detailed and repetitive…And the crowds responded with cheers, not laughs.” http://nyti.ms/pYYq8w

BORDER SECURITY – WAPO LOOKS AT PERRY’S PARAMILITARY APPROACH: “Alone among his Republican rivals running for president, the Texas governor has a small army at his disposal,” William Booth writes from Austin. “Over the past three years, he has deployed it along his southern flank in a secretive, military-style campaign that his supporters deem absolutely necessary and successful and that his critics call an overzealous, expensive and mostly ineffective political stunt.” Some good details in here: http://wapo.st/qWLKpq

“I HATE CANCER” – PERRY BUDGET CUT CERVICAL CANCER SCREENINGS: “On the presidential campaign trail, Gov. Rick Perry has explained his much-maligned effort to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for school-aged girls by saying he hates the cervical cancer it causes and will ‘always err on the side of saving lives,’” the Texas Tribune reports in a story up this morning. “Yet he gets some of his biggest applause in early primary states when he brags of signing a state budget that largely defunds Planned Parenthood — which provides four times more cervical cancer screenings every year in Texas than abortions.” http://bit.ly/rsQftC

WHAT ELSE YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS:

• David Axelrod on ABC: “Obviously, I don't think any American is impressed when they see Governor Romney and all the Republican candidates say the first thing they'd do is roll back Wall Street reforms and go back to where we were before the crisis and let Wall Street write its own rules. I think that will be an issue in this campaign." http://politi.co/pOeFIx

• Newt Gingrich on CNN: “I think Perry was the natural alternative to Romney and if Perry had a flawless campaign, he would’ve been the nominee,” adding that Romney has a “natural ceiling.” http://politi.co/qU8j5n

• John McCain on CNN: “It’s time the president came off the campaign trail, sat down and negotiated with us [on areas of] common ground.” http://politi.co/qIih3e

• George Will on ABC: “We’re having a kind of Andy Warhol primary where everyone is leader for 15 minutes. And its Cain’s turn today…He’s not running for president; he’s sort of strolling for president without an infrastructure. It’s pretty and cute and nice, but whether that works, we can be doubtful.” http://bit.ly/qbKa6q

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO: Romney opens his Nevada headquarters in Las Vegas at 3:30 p.m. Cain speaks at a fundraiser for the Arizona GOP. Huntsman files as a candidate for president at the New Hampshire State House with Secretary of State Bill Gardner. He will take questions from reporters about boycotting the Nevada debate after his 2 p.m. filing. Paul will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. PT to make “a major announcement” related to his “Restore America Plan” in the Casanova Room of the Venetian in Las Vegas. Bachmann hosts a border security roundtable with Arizona legislators in Phoenix at 10:30. Then Donald Trump does a tele-town hall with her at 8 p.m. ET tonight. Register to get on: http://bit.ly/rlwhud

WISCONSIN SENATE EXCLUSIVE – FITZGERALD HIRES FP1 STRATEGIES: Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, running for the Republican Senate nomination, will announce today that D.C.-based FP1 Strategies LLC will serve as his general and media consultants. FP1 Strategies, which will help build his campaign team and do voter communication, is the firm founded by Terry Nelson, Jon Downs and Danny Diaz. Fitzgerald is in a primary fight with former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson.

UTAH SENATE – DSCC POLL PUTS HATCH UP SIX OVER MATHESON: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is releasing a poll in Utah that finds Rep. Jim Matheson with a higher favorability and job approval rating number than incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch. The incumbent Hatch beats the Democrat 48-42 in a head-to-head match-up. In one of the most Republican states in the country, Matheson leads Hatch 27 points among self-identifying independents. The DSCC says that “after voters hear a balanced amount of information about each candidate,” Hatch only leads by two. Anzalone Liszt Research, which ran the poll, gave Republicans a 32 point lead in the generic ballot and a 36 point edge in party ID. Matheson’s favorable is 64%, with a 66% job approval rating. Hatch’s favorable is 57%, with 62% approval. Matheson’s unfavorable is 26%. Hatch’s is 38%. National Democrats are trying to recruit Matheson to give up his House seat to run for either governor or senator.

SNEAK PEEK – TYLER Q. HOULTON LAUNCHES COLORADO OUTSIDE GROUP: The NRCC’s ex-western regional press secretary has reemerged as president of Compass Colorado, a new non-profit to increase fiscal awareness. His first project is opposing Proposition 103, an education funding measure on the ballot that he says would lead to a $2.9 billion tax increase. After November 1, he plans to focus more on national economic policies that hurt job creation in his home state. http://bit.ly/ppeodw

POLICYMAKERS OF THE YEAR? – NOMINATIONS REQUESTED: POLITICO will host the first-ever Year in Policy and Politics Conference this December. The so-called P2 event will highlight the ups, downs, debates and decisions that shaped politics and policymaking in 2011. A dinner will honor the policymaker who made the biggest difference for health care, energy and technology policy. You can nominate the person who made the greatest impact on policy in 2011 in each area at www.POLITICO.com/P2 or email P2Nominations@POLITICO.com. A committee of the editorial staff will choose the winners. Nominations are due Oct. 24.

CODA – QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It’s not about religion. It’s about the fact that running for president is like sticking your face in the blade of a fan.” – Mike Huckabee, pushing back on Anita Perry’s claim that her husband has been “brutalized” because of his Christian faith http://bit.ly/nSSjwb

Authors:

About The Author

James Hohmann is a reporter for POLITICO Pro.

He covered the 2012 presidential campaign from start to finish, authoring the daily Morning Score tipsheet for nearly two years as he reported from 23 states over the course of the primaries and general election. Through the fall, he traveled with Mitt Romney.

Hohmann spent 2010 chronicling the Republican Party’s drive to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

He arrived from The Washington Post at the end of 2009. Previously he wrote for the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, the Dallas Morning News and The San Jose Mercury News.

An honors graduate of Stanford University, Hohmann studied American political history. He served as editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily and wrote an award-winning thesis about the 1976 Republican primaries and the political ascendancy of Ronald Reagan.